There has been a lot of excitement and interest regarding the topic of chaperones and protein folding. The chaperonins are particularly intriguing since the arrival at a solution of the bacterial chaperonin complex GroEL/GroES. Insights that come from the structure of these very large complexes could now be extended by the study of the dynamics of both the bacterial and the eukaryotic complexes using small-angle x-ray scattering.